Trans free non-hydrogenated hard structural fat and non-hydrogenated hard palm oil fraction component

ABSTRACT

A trans free non hydrogenated high C-16 type palm fat suitable for the manufacture of trans free non hydrogenated hard structural fat that is being suitable for use in the manufacture of low SAFA (Saturated Fatty Acid) poly/mono unsaturated margarine and spreads and shortening and fat blends incorporating such hard Structural fat. The Structural fat is made from selectively fractionated non-hydrogenated high melting palm oil fraction with a C-16 fatty acid residue of at least 70%, which is subjected to chemical random interesterification using alkaline metal catalyst such as sodium methoxide/sodium methylate, with a dry fractionated non hydrogenated hard palm kernel stearin fraction. The structural fat that is produced has high yield ratios that can be economically and commercially incorporated in the oil blends for the manufacture of trans free margarine/spreads/shortening as well as other plastic W/O emulsions. Also described is a process for the manufacturing such structural fat as well as hard palm fraction including process for the manufacture of extra hard trans free structural fat by panning and pressing of above structural fat.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Historically emulsified fat system in margarine/spreads has beendesigned to satisfy customer requirements such as significant coolingimpact, a rapid sharp melt sensation, and no coated or waxy feel on thetongue. In addition, it should impart temperature cycling stability(heat stability) as well as spread ability when taken out frequentlyfrom the refrigerators is the prominent features.

To achieve these objectives, margarine fat blend is being formulatedusing hard stocks derived by hydrogenation of liquid oils.

However, with the adverse effect of Trans fatty acids being published,consumers are looking for margarine/spreads with practically no transfatty acids. Recent studies have indicated that trans fatty acidsproduced during the hydrogenation process is considered much moreharmful compared to saturated fatty acids (SAFA). Low trans fatty acidlevels can be achieved by using fully hydrogenated fats as structuralfat, which usually does not contain trans fatty acid or very negligibleamount. Such hydrogenated fats were subjected interesterification withlauric fats and solvent fractionated to derive premium qualitystructural fat that could be incorporated in smaller level to produceLow SAFA products.

Hydrogenation process is generally viewed as the main reason for thedevelopment of trans fatty acids in oils and fats. Hence, there is astrong consumer perception against usage of and hydrogenated oil/fat inthe food products including margarine/spreads/shortening. Further use oforganic solvent as well detergent for fractionation process are viewedby the consumers are unhealthy processing.

Hence research work is being carried out for developingmargarine/spreads and shortening using no hydrogenated oils in theirhard stock at the same time looking at the possibility of reducing thesaturated fatty acid levels (SAFA) in the products At the same time workwere carried out to develop new fractionation process to eliminate usageof solvent/detergents in the fractionation process.

For manufacturing Margarine/Spreads, the fat blend should be such thatit has a flat melt profile from 5 to 30 Deg C. at the same time lowsolids at 35 and 40 deg C. so that the product has good mouth feel. Theblend should be such that the product does not oil out and has goodtemperature cycling stability.

Further in recent years due to high publicity in the media with respectto adverse effect of Saturated as well as trans fatty acids, manymanufacturers have taken a nutritional approach to manufacture theproduct by reducing the saturated as well as trans fatty acids andincreasing poly/mono unsaturated fatty acids in the margarine/spreads aswell as shortening.

Margarine/Spreads have been on the market for some time aiming to meetthis need. Typically, the margarine fat of these products consists ofabout 87% liquid oil, e.g. sunflower oil and 13% of a hard stockconsisting of a random interesterified mixture of fully hardened lauricfat, e.g. fully hardened palm kernel oil, and fully hardened palm oil.

Attempts have been made over the years to formulate margarine/spread fatblends by using much lower levels of hard stock. For example EP 89,082recommended H₂M rich hard stocks. The preferred method described in EP89,082 for producing such hard stock is randomly interesterifying apartly or fully hydrogenated lauric fat having a melting point rangingfrom 30 to 41 degree. C., with a fat, which can be fully or partlyhydrogenated, fractionated or non-fractionated, wherein at least 60% ofthe fatty acid residues are C.sub.16- or C.sub.18-fatty acid residues.This C.sub.16-C.sub.18 fat is preferably selected from palm fat, soybeanoil, groundnut oil, sunflower oil, maize oil, and rapeseed oil, having amelting point ranging from 50 to 71.degree. C.; and fractionating theinteresterified mixture. Fractionation is preferably done in an organicsolvent. The examples of EP 89,082 illustrate spreads comprisingmargarine fats containing 90 or even 93% sunflower oil and only 7 or 10%hard stock. This hard stock is produced by means of 2-stagefractionation in acetone to obtain a mid fraction of a randominteresterified mixture of 50 parts fully hydrogenated palm kernel fatand 50 parts fully hydrogenated palm fat.

Thus EP 89,082 met the objective of manufacture of Margarine/Spreadswith very Low SAFA as well as very PUFA/MUFA by producing a hardStructural fat that can be used at levels as low as 4%.

However, recently consumers have been expressing concern aboutchemically modifying fats e.g. by hydrogenating or hardening, whichresult in trans fatty acid residues if partial hardening is involved.Also consumers have been voicing their concern over use of solvent suchas Acetone etc as well detergents for fractionation of fats. Even thoughfull hydrogenation eliminates the presence of trans fatty acid residues,still there is a consumer perception that any hydrogenated product isundesirable. Because of this the manufacturers of margarine/Spreads havebeen looking for alternate hard stock, which do not undergohydrogenation as well as solvent fractionation processes. To meet theneed for spreads with low contents of SAFA in the margarine fat whichhave been produced without using hydrogenation, CA 2 098 314 proposes toprepare hard stock by chemically interesterifying a blend of generallyequal proportions of palm stearin and palm kernel stearin.

However the usage level of such hard stock was 14-21% especially about16% to obtain a good quality product. This high level of usage resultedin higher level of SAFA in the final products. Hence attempts have beenmade to prepare hard stock that can be used at much reduced levels ofeven 5 to 14%. This objective was reached to a considerable extent inrecent years. For Example in U.S. Pat. No. 5,858,445, U.S. Pat. No.6,156,370, CA 2207954, as well as in WO 96/19115, the inventers havefound that a hard structural fat that can be used at level of 5-14% canbe produced with out Solvent fractionation, random chemicalinteresterification as well as hydrogenation process that has been usedin EP 89,082. Accordingly, the invention provides a margarine fat blendessentially comprising 86-95% liquid oil and 5-14% of a hard stock, thishard stock being a stearin fraction of an enzymatically interesterifiedmixture of 25-65%, and preferably 35-55%, unhardened lauric fat stearinand 75-35%, and preferably 65-45%, unhardened C.sub.16+fat stearin.

By selecting unhardened natural vegetable fat products having sufficientsaturated fatty acids, such as lauric fat fractions and palm oilfractions for the enzymatic interesterification, the chemicalmodification of the fats were reduced to a minimum and the trans fattyacid level in the final fat blend were to almost zero.

The hard stock produced from un-hydrogenated fat under U.S. Pat. No.5,858,445, U.S. Pat. No. 6,156,370, CA 2207954 and WO 96/19115, couldachieve quite similar results with respect to the nutritional propertiesof the spread as in EP 89,082. How ever EP 89,082 focus on fullyconcentrates on achieving the minimum SAFA content in the product withacceptable product properties and heat cycling stabilities. To meet thisrequirement, the inventors used all the fat modification techniquesincluding hydrogenation, chemical interesterification, solventfractionation and even chemical synthesis of triglycerides.

By using Structural fat produced under U.S. Pat. No. 5,858,445, U.S.Pat. No. 6,156,370, CA 2207954 and WO 96/19115 the inventers couldsubstantially match the performance of EP 89,082 without usingHydrogenation, solvent fractionation, and chemical interesterification.However to achieve this, they had to resort to expensive multi stage dryfractionation process as per EP 399,597 to produce hard palm C16fraction. Further, they had to use expensive enzymaticinteresterification process for interesterification of Lauric fat aswell as palm fat. Further, the interesterified fat was required toundergo an additional dry fractionation process at 31-41 Deg C. toproduce hard Structural fat for use in margarine blend. Solventfractionation process improved the yield of the hard fraction but isconsidered very expensive and not natural because of usage of solvent inthe process. Such solvent fractionation plant are highly capitalintensive and require very high safety and environmental feature. This,however, resulted in low yields of structural fat ranging from 14 to45%. Since this process produced excessive olein fraction (liquidfraction) as a byproduct, alternate use for olein fraction need to befound to get economical value for such fraction. This resulted in theprocess being commercially un-attractive. Further, inventors usedenzymatic interesterification method. To date, the cost of immobilizedenzymes required and high capital and variable processing cost involvedhas made this process un competitive with respect to chemical randominteresterification process. This is especially true in case ofmanufacture of low value products like fats formargarine/spreads/shortening.

Further, many consumers do not consider enzymatic interesterification asa “truly” natural process. For example, in recent EU Parliamentdirective No.20000/36/EC of 23 rd June 2000 relating to cocoa andchocolate products intended for human consumption, has prohibited use ofvegetable fat which has under gone “enzymatic” fat modification of thetriglyceride structure. Further, many of the new enzymes are produced bygenetic modification and there is again very strong consumer perceptionagainst products derived using genetically modified substances.

We, therefore, consider random chemical interesterification process ismore “natural” and a mild process as the alkaline metal catalyst,namely, sodium methoxide used in the process breaks down as sodiumhydroxide. Sodium hydroxide has been used historically and even to dayfor the refining of soft oils such as soybean, sunflower, canola etc andsuch refined oil is consumed widely and even for manufacture ofmargarine/spreads. Further, chemical interesterification is a well knownart in the industry and needs low level of technology and cost.

We, therefore, found that this economic and commercial issue involvedcould be addressed by inventing a new process to manufacture hard palmfraction that could be interesterified with a hard palm kernel fat. Wewanted to avoid further fractionation steps of such interesterified fatso that the yield of structural fat is approx 97%. Even if, a furtherfractionation step was required to produce extra hard structural fat,the focus was how to improve the yield of such hard stock to level of65% and above compared to 14-45% that were achieved under U.S. Pat. No.5,858,445, U.S. Pat. No. 6,156,370, CA 2207954 and WO 96/19115.

To this, our approach was to use single or two stages meltcrystalization and dry fractionation method to produce a hard palmstearin fraction with a C+16 level of greater than 83% and totalsaturated fatty acid level of greater than 90%. Further our approach wasalso to use commercially available palm stearin fraction, which ispriced much cheaper to palm oil, with a single stage dry fractionationstep to obtain high C-16 hard palm stearin fraction. Further, ourobjective was to avoid prior art multi stage counter current dryfractionation process to achieve such hard palm stearin fraction whichis considered expensive and produced low yield of such hard fraction.

It is considered essential to achieve max level of C-16 type fatty acidswhile enriching C-16 type fatty acids in the palm stearin fraction. Ifthis could be achieved automatically, other saturated fatty acids mainlyC-14 as well as C-18 type also get enriched resulting in over allincrease of total saturated fatty acids in such hard palm stearinfraction to over 90%. When such fraction is mixed with hard palm kernelstearin fraction with a C-12 level of higher than 52%, the totalsaturated fatty acid level in the blend exceeds 90%. Higher levels ofsaturated fatty acids in the blend before interesterification reactionis highly preferred, as this resulted in higher level of tri-saturatedtriglycerides in the interesterified blend. The reason for this has beenexplained in detail under the “Detailed Description of The Invention.”

This goal was achieved in commercial scale operation in the plant byselectively crystallizing the commercially traded palm stearin fractionand then filtering the slurry through a high pressure membrane press andafter completion of filtration, applying high squeeze pressure on themembrane (10-60 bar) so as to squeeze out the occluded liquid oil (oleinfraction) in the hard palm stearin fraction recovered in the filterchamber. This high pressure squeezing of the filter cake recovered inthe filter resulted in the enrichment of the C-16 fatty acid residue aswell as saturated fatty acids levels in the hard stearin fraction thusrecovered to achieve maximum de-oiling of hard stearin fraction, thechamber depth of commercial membrane press were required to be reducedfrom 40 to 50 mm which is considered as an industrial standard fornormal palm oil filtration process to 10-30 mm. High inflation pressurenecessitated reduction in chamber depth so that the stretch required inthe member is kept as small as possible so that higher pressure could beapplied during squeezing operation by inflating the membrane with outover stretching the same due to excess expansion. Applying of highersqueezing pressure resulted in enrichment of C-16 fatty acid residuelevel to over 80%, in the hard stearin fraction thus obtained. This alsoincreased total saturated fatty acid level in the hard stearin fraction.

It was difficult to obtain such hard palm stearin fraction in the priorart processes, even by solvent fractionation method as well as expensivemulti stage counter current dry fractionation method. This could be seenin the examples given in the prior art process, wherein the C-16 levelin the hard palm fat obtained was only 79.4% and the level of totalsaturated fat in this fat was only 84.6%, even though it was produced byusing expensive multi stage counter current fractionation method. Evenusage of very expensive solvent fractionation process yielded a hardpalm stearin fraction with a C-16 level of only 77.9% only as given inthe examples of the prior art processes.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is concerned with a hard high C-16 type palmstearin fraction as well as a trans free hard structural fat suitablefor the manufacture of low SAFA (Saturated Fatty Acid) poly/monounsaturated margarine and spreads and fat blends as well as W/Oemulsions. The structural fat is made from selectively fractionatednon-hydrogenated, high C-16 type palm oil stearin fraction, which issubjected to random chemical interesterification using alkali metalcatalyst such as sodium methoxide/sodium methylate, with a dryfractionated non-hydrogenated hard palm kernel stearin fraction toobtain hard structural fat with high yield ratios that can beeconomically and commercially incorporated in the oil blend for themanufacture of trans free, low SAFA, high poly unsaturated/monounsaturated margarine/spreads/shortening and other food preparations.

Abbreviations: FA=fatty acid, FAC=fatty acid composition,PUFA=poly-unsaturated acid(s), SAFA=saturated fatty acid(s), MUFA=Monounsaturated Fatty Acids, H=saturated FAs with carbon numbers greaterthan or equal to 16, M=saturated FAs with carbon numbers less than orequal to or les than 14. H-3 refers to triglycerides with 3-carbon chainof length C16 and above that are saturated. H₂M refers to triglycerideswhich has 2 carbon chain that are C16 and above and saturated and onechain of carbon length C 14 and below. Tg's=tri glycerides.

In this description all parts, proportions and percentages are byweight; the amount of fatty acids in an oil or fat is based on the totalamount of fatty acids in said oil or fat and the amount of hard stockand/or hard fat in the fat composition is based on the total weight ofsaid fat composition, unless otherwise stated.

The solid fat content (SFC) in this description and claims is expressed,as N-value using nuclear magnetic resonance method. The method used isIUPAC method 2.323. The fat is heated to a temperature of 80.degree. Cand filtered and filled in SFC tubes Maintain at 60 Deg for at least 5minutes, keeping the sample for 1 hour at 0.degree. C. And then 30minutes at the measuring temperature. The SFC values are measured usingBruker Minispec-120 instrument.

For a better understanding of the invention some practical embodimentsthereof has been described in the following examples. Parts andpercentages as used in these examples, the description and the claimsrefer to weights unless otherwise indicated. For manufacturing spreadsmay be referred to various text books, e.g. The Chemistry and Technologyof Edible Oils and Fats and their High Fat Products by G. Hoffmann;Academic Press London 1989, page 319 ff and in particular page 320-321.

Carbon number analysis is a well-known technique in the art. A suitabledescription is e.g. given in EP 78,568. The terms “fat” and “oil” areused in this invention are synonyms. The term “liquid oil” is used inthis invention refers to glyceride mixtures that are pourable at 5degrees C. Preferably the solid fat content of the liquid oil is 0 at 20degree C.

“Fractionation” is a process used for separation of high meltingcomponent from a feed stock, The higher melting solid fraction obtainedis called as “stearin” fraction or hard fraction and lower meltingliquid fraction is called “olein” fraction or soft fraction. Through outthis illustrations, the term stearin fraction as well as term oleinfraction means higher melting fraction and lower melting fraction,respectively.

Interesterification process is a well-known art and a more recent reviewof the same is published by Rozendaal & Macrae (1997). Wheninteresterification process is carried out using alkali metal catalyst(0.1-0.2% sodium methoxide catalyst ((sodium methylate (NaOCH₃)-UNNo.143 also known as Natrium Methylate is used as catalyst), it leads toa random distribution of triglycerides in which the fatty acids aredistributed randomly over the 1-2-and 3-position of the glycerol moiety.The number of tri-glycerides produced by interesterifying a fattymixture containing n fatty acids is: ½(n²+n³).

Since the process involved is of statistical nature, the finalequilibrium triglyceride composition of the interesterified fat can beeasily calculated and properties are easily predicted. The table-1 belowgives the relationship in the number of fatty acids in the tri-glyceridemixture and number of tri-glycerides in fat mixture after chemicalrandom interesterification TABLE 1 Number of tri-glycerides in fatNumber of fatty acids in the tri- mixture after glyceride mixtureInteresterification 2 6 3 18 4 40 5 75 6 126 7 196 8 288 9 405It has been found that actual reaction product is always in line withthe statistical prediction. In an edible plastic spread or margarine,hard stock contributes triglycerides especially of the tri-saturatedtype. A certain minimum quantity of these is essential to provide the“structuring effect” and to prevent oiling out of the liquid oil byproviding temperature cycling stability.

From the patent literature and general experience, this minimum quantityrequirement of such tri saturated tri-glycerides is around 6%. More isacceptable and desirable the limitation being the SAFA content limit inthe fat blend if any. How ever, the amount of H₃ type tri-glycerides,and especially tri-stearin, should not exceed a 2% max limit. Because ofit's high melt point as well as crystalline structure, if the level isgreater than 2%, it can cause product complaint such as sandiness andgraininess and result in poor mouth feel. Hence content of H₂M type oftriglycerides is valuable, to give the required structuring effect, atthe same time with out giving raise to sandiness/graininess as well aspoor mouth feel to the product. To achieve this, it is essential to usea fat/oil with lower carbon chain residues such as lauric oils. Randominteresterification process resulted in the rearrangement of the fattriglyceride geometry.

When the hard stock components are interesterified, the amounts oftri-saturated triglycerides in the interesterified product aredetermined entirely by the content of saturated fatty acids in theblend. The amount of tri-saturated triglyceride in the product afterrandom interesterification will be the cube of the amount of saturatedfatty acid in the fat blend before interesterification. For example, theamount of tri-saturated tri-glycerides produced by interesterifying afatty mixture containing ‘m’ level of saturated fatty acids (SAFA) is:(m³).

Because this relationship is very critical, as shown in the table-2below, attempts are made to produce very hard palm as well as lauricfractions with very high levels of saturated fatty acids, which in turnwill result in high levels of tri saturated tri-glycerides after randomchemical interesterification process. TABLE 2 % SAFA in the fat Blend %Tri-Saturated Tg's in the product 10 0.1 20 0.8 30 2.7 40 6.4 50 12.5060 21.60 67 30.00 80 51.20 85 61.41 90 72.90 91 75.36 92 77.87 93 80.4494 83.60 95 85.74 100 100.00

Consider that the SAFA content of polyunsaturated margarine should notexceed 20% when using a fat level of 80% in the finished margarine. Thefat blend is considered consisting of 80% sunflower oil as the PUFA oilto be used in the blend and 20% hard stock (high usage level). At thislevel of blend, the SAFA contributed by sunflower oil works out to10.3%. This means that the maximum SAFA that can be contributed by thehard stock at usage level of 20%, cannot exceed 11.7% to be able not toexceed the 20% SAFA limit. Further the hard stock should contribute tominimum of 6% tri-saturated Tgs in the final blend.

This means that the hard stock should contribute to 6% tri-saturatedtriglycerides at the usage level of 20%. It can be seen from the abovetable-2 that the SAFA content of the hard stock must be about 67% sothat interesterified hard stock has 30% tri-saturated triglyceride,which in turn will contribute to 6% tri-saturated triglycerides at 20%usage level.

Assuming only 15% hard stock is to be used, then the SAFA content of thehard stock must be about 74%, so that it has 40% tri-saturatedtriglyceride after interesterification. Further assuming that only 7%hard stock is to be used, then the SAFA content of the hard stock mustbe around 93.90% so that it has 82.79% tri-saturated triglycerides afterinteresterification.

These are minimum requirements and a higher amount of tri-saturatedtri-glycerides would be desirable. How ever it is preferable to limit H3type triglyceride in the blend to max 2% level to achieve goodorganolapitic characteristics.

The usage of hard structural fat in the blend can be 5 to 40% and theliquid oil or its blends can be 95-60%. Table 3 below gives the level oftri-saturated triglycerides in the margarine blend with two types ofhard fats. TABLE 3 Sunflower Hard Oil Stock-A Hard Stock-B Blend-1Blend-2 Sunflower Oil 100% 100% 100% 92.00% 93.00% Hard Stock-A 8.00%Hard Stock-B 7.00% C: 8 0.72 0.48 0.06 0.03 C: 10 1.08 0.76 0.09 0.05 C:12 21.14 17.1 1.69 1.20 C: 14 8.79 7.83 0.70 0.55 C: 16 5.3 54.86 63.339.26 9.36 C: 18: 0 3.9 4.18 3.77 3.92 3.89 C: 18: 1 27.1 7.76 6.05 25.5525.63 C: 18: 2 62.6 1.48 0.68 57.71 58.27 SAFA 9.2 90.77 93.27 15.7315.08 SSS 76.93 82.88 6.15 5.80 HHH 17.06 26.84 1.36 1.88 H2M 27.3831.05 2.19 2.17

It could be seen from the above two examples that, even at very lowusage levels of hard structural fat at 7 to 8%, the requiredtri-saturated triglycerides of H2M level in the blend could be achieved,at the same time restricting the level of H-3 type tri-glycerides below2%. H-3 type triglycerides imparts adverse organoleptic properties inthe final product and hence it is desired to keep the same at around 2%levels.

While the invention has been described with reference to specificembodiments, modifications and variations of the inventions may beconstructed with out departing from the scope of the invention, which isdefined in the following claims.

EXAMPLE-1

Hard Stock—A

Palm oil was fractioned using standard single stage melt crystallizationmethod in a fractionation plant of a commercial scale to produce palmstearin fraction similar to the one commercially traded in the market.The capacity of the crystallizer used was 40,000 Kg per batch.

Palm oil was melted to and heated to 70 degrees C. and held at thistemperature of at least 15 minutes so that the oil lost its crystalmemory. The oil was then cooled to crystallize the hard palm fraction bycontrol of water temperature as well as oil temperature such that oiltemperature was brought down to 23 degrees C. The stearin fraction,which crystallized out, was then separated in a membrane type filter andsqueezed to 4 bar to remove entrained liquid olein. After core blow, themedium hard stearin fraction was discharged to stearin tank kept belowthe membrane filter. The entire cycle took 8 hours. The iodine no of thestearin fraction obtained was 33. The yield of the stearin fraction was20%.

This stearin fraction collected was again charged to anothercrystallizer and was heated again to 75 deg C. and held at thistemperature for 15 minutes so that the oil lost its crystal memory. Theoil was then cooled to crystallize the hard palm fraction by control ofwater temperature as well as oil temperature such that oil temperaturewas brought down to 48 Deg C. At this temperature mainly C-16 type offats crystallized.

The cooled fat was filtered at 48 Deg C. through a high-pressuremembrane filter with a chamber depth of 10 mm. (Netzch type) Afterfiltration of each batch, the hard fraction collected in the chamber ofthe filter was subjected to progressive squeezing pressure to remove theoccluded olein in the crystal matrix of the hard fraction. The squeezingpressure was increased up to 20 bar and then held at this pressure for 5minutes. Thereafter, the filter was core blowed to remove all the feedslurry from the core of the press and the cake were discharged in to theStearin tank.

The hard stearin fraction was tested to contain 80.77% C-16 fatty acidresidues and 12.35% unsaturated fatty acid residues. The yield of thehard palm stearin fraction was 30%. Both fractionation steps yieldedliquid fraction, which was valued in the trade at a higher value,compared to feed stock.

This hard palm fraction was then blend in the ratio of approx. 65% to35% with hard commercially available palm kernel fraction having a C-12level of 53.78%. The resultant mixture was randomly interesterified with0.15% sodium methoxide catalyst ((sodium methylate (NaOCH₃)-UN No.143also known as Natrium Methylate) supplied by M/S.Degussa Huls. Theinteresterified mixture was washed with citric acid solution andbleached and deodorized. The resultant hard structural fat was found tohave the desired specifications required in a hard structural fat. Theanalytical values of the blends used as well as resultant hardstructural fat obtained are given in the Table 4A-Table-4 E below. TABLE4A High C-16 Hard palm Blended Fat After hard palm kernel oil beforeInteresterifi- Test fraction fraction interesterification cation SFC-DegC 20 92.1 84.2 88.7 92.5 25 92.1 70.4 79.4 85.2 30 90.9 33.3 65.6 72.535 88.4 nil 57.1 54.3 40 83.0 49.9 33.7 FAC C8 — 1.88 0.72 0.72 10 —2.69 1.08 1.08 12 0.13 53.78 21.14 21.14 14 1.32 22.2 8.79 8.79 16 80.779.19 54.86 54.86 18:0 5.43 2.24 4.18 4.18 18:1 10.15 6.95 7.76 7.76 18:22.20 1.06 1.48 1.48

TABLE 4B Fatty acid profile of interesterified fat FATTY ACID OVERALL %WT Y CAPRYLIC C: 8 0.72 C CAPRIC C: 10 1.08 L LAURIC C: 12 21.14 MMYRISTIC C: 14 8.79 P PALMITIC C: 16 54.86 S STEARIC C: 18-0 4.18 OOLEIC C: 18-1 7.76 L LINOLEIC C: 18-2 1.48

TABLE 4-C Triglyceride Composition after interesterification reaction(More than 1% mole level only taken in to account) TRIGLYCERIDE % WTC.NO LLL 1.33 36 LLM 1.02 38 LLP 5.94 40 LMP 2.27 42 LPL 2.97 40 LPM2.27 42 LPP 13.21 44 LPO 1.76 46 LOP 1.76 46 MLP 2.27 42 MPP 5.04 46 PLP6.61 44 PLO 1.76 46 PMP 2.52 46 PPP 14.6 48 PPS 2.09 50 PPO 3.89 50 POP1.94 50 H-3 TYPE (PPP + PPS) 16.69% 48 + 50

TABLE 4D TRIGLYCERIDE % WT SSS 76.93 SOS 5.9 SSO 11.8 SLS 1.13 SSL 2.26SSU 1.28 USU 0.64 UUU 0.06

The resulting hard structural fat was blended with fully refinedsunflower oil at various ratios and the solid fat content was analyzedto find the best blend level for the manufacture of Margarine. Theblending was done from 1% level to 20% level and the SFC profile of theblend is shown in the Table 5. TABLE 5 Sun Hard flow- SMP Stock- er DegSFC SFC SFC SFC SFC SFC SFC A oil ° C. N-0 N-10 N-20 N-25 N-30 N-35 N-40100 0 46.6 93.52 93.05 92.50 85.20 72.50 54.30 33.70 25 75 39.8 27.3323.09 16.31 12.59 9.33 5.91 3.40 20 80 36.9 22.17 18.16 12.71 9.52 7.144.10 2.38 15 85 34.4 16.32 13.35 8.79 6.88 4.65 2.67 0.76 14 86 34.415.40 12.66 8.12 6.20 4.32 2.23 0.60 13 87 34.4 14.32 11.73 7.24 5.413.78 2.10 0.51 12 88 34.4 12.88 10.87 6.31 5.03 3.04 1.71 nil 11 89 32.811.22 9.93 6.08 4.73 2.80 1.60 nil 10 90 30.0 11.41 9.00 5.85 4.20 2.621.84 nil 9 91 30.0 10.02 8.03 4.92 3.51 2.33 1.50 nil 8 92 30.0 8.717.09 4.00 2.84 2.06 1.28 nil 7 93 29.4 8.01 6.08 3.12 2.50 1.60 0.60 nil6 94 27.6 7.32 5.14 2.51 2.44 1.18 0.49 nil 5 95 21.4 5.84 4.34 1.962.00 0.76 0.36 nil 0 100 0 0.05 nil

Margarine was produced using a blend level of 7% hard structural fatwith 93% sunflower oil and following composition was used. Oil Blend 82.000% Water  16.000% Salt  2.000% Flavor  0.010% Dimodan PV  0.300%Distilled Momo Glyceride B Carotene 0.00300%

The mixture was process through a pilot plant supplied by SchroderKombinator through a conventional A-A-C sequence with a throughput of 10Kg per hour. Exit temperature of A unit was 17 Deg C. and that of secondA unit was 12 deg C. The exit temperature of the product was 8.8 deg C.The rpm of the pin worker was maintained at 200. The margarine producedwas found to be soft, shining, of good spreadability and imparted goodsalt release. The solid fat profile of the blend after tempering for 1hour as well as 16 hours at 0 Deg C. is given as below: TABLE 6Tempering at 0 Deg C. for 60 minutes 16 hours N 10 6.08 6.70 N 20 3.123.60 N 25 2.50 2.95 N 30 1.60 1.85 N 35 0.60 0.50

EXAMPLE-2

Hard Stock-B

Palm oil was fractioned using standard melt crystallization processmethod to produce Palm stearin fraction as given in the Example 1. Thisstearin fraction was then subjected to another melt crystalization stepand the slurry was filtered at a higher temperature of 52 Deg C. througha high-pressure membrane filter as per example 1. (Netzch type) Afterfiltration of each batch, the hard fractionation collected in thechamber of the filter was subjected to progressive squeezing pressure toremove the occluded olein in the crystal matrix of the hard fraction.The squeezing pressure was increased up to 30 bar and then held at thispressure for 10 minutes. There after the filter was core blowed toremove all the feed slurry from the core of the press and the cake weredischarged in to the Stearin tank. The hard stearin fraction was testedto contain 86.53% of C-16 fatty acid residues and 7.47% unsaturatedfatty acid residues.

This hard palm fraction was then blend in the ratio of approx. 70%/30%with extra palm kernel fraction obtained by hard setting andfractionation of Palm Kernel oil and having a C-12 level of 56.71%, andunsaturated fatty acid residue level of 6.73%.

The resultant mixture was randomly interesterified with 0.15% sodiummethoxide catalyst. The interesterified mixture was washed with citricacid solution and bleached and deodorized. The resultant hard structuralfat was found to have the desired characteristics required in a hardstructural fat. The details are given in the Table 7 below. TABLE 7AHigh C-16 Hard palm Blended Fat hard palm oil kernel oil before AfterTest fraction fraction interesterification Interesterification SFC 20925 90.1 91.8 92.5 25 92.1 79.6 88.4 91.37 30 91.4 45.4 77.6 84.3 35 8860.1 62.1 71.3 40 86.04 nil 60.2 52.1 FAC C8 — 1.59 0.72 0.48 10 — 2.531.08 0.76 12 0.13 56.71 21.14 17.1 14 1.24 23.19 8.79 7.83 16 86.53 8.4154.86 63.33 18:0 4.63 2.58 3.77 18:1 6.71 4.5 6.05 18:2 0.76 0.49 0.68

TABLE 7-B Fatty Acid profile of interesterified fat OVERALL %DESCRIPTION FATTY ACID WT Y CAPRYLIC C: 8 0.52 C CAPRIC C: 10 0.81 LLAURIC C: 12 17.68 M MYRISTIC C: 14 8.51 P PALMITIC C: 16 59.71 SSTEARIC C: 18-0 5.35 O OLEIC C: 18-1 6.39 L LINOLEIC C: 18-2 1.03

TABLE 7-C CARBON NO % WT 34 0.20 36 0.40 38 2.32 40 3.04 42 11.03 4410.55 46 23.26 48 17.05 50 19.14 52 10.48 54 2.32

TABLE 7-D TRIGLYCERIDE % WT SSS 81.04 SOS 5.06 SSO 10.12 SLS 0.82 SSL1.64 SSU 0.85 USU 0.43 UUU 0.03

The resulting trans free interesterified hard fat was blended with fullyrefined sunflower oil at various ratios and the solid fat was analyzedto find the best blend level for the manufacture of Margarine. Theblending was done from 1% level to 15% level and the SFC profile isshown in Table 8. TABLE 8 Sunflower SFC Deg C. oil Hard Stock-B 10 20 2530 35 40 100 0 — — — — — — 99 1 0.61 0.1 0.17 0.03 nil nil 98 2 1.630.73 0.42 0.17 nil nil 97 3 2.69 1.14 0.94 0.49 0.03 nil 96 4 3.74 1.831.61 0.67 0.18 nil 95 5 4.69 2.04 1.92 1.42 0.58 nil 94 6 5.64 2.82 2.731.61 0.77 nil 93 7 6.73 3.55 3.34 2.18 1.2 nil 92 8 7.62 4.11 3.81 2.591.28 0.23 91 9 8.59 4.86 4.4 3.17 1.97 0.44 90 10 9.68 5.63 5.14 3.312.07 0.55 89 11 10.53 6.42 5.72 3.91 2.26 1 88 12 11.74 7 6.38 4.16 2.761.21 87 13 12.66 7.62 7.04 4.95 3.01 1.49 86 14 13.49 8.17 7.57 5.6 3.61.7 85 15 14.67 9.32 8.5 6.06 3.84 1.94 0 100 96.72 92.50 91.37 84.3071.35 52.10

This hard stock and blended with fully refined sunflower oil in a ratioof 7:93 to give a margarine fat blend. The SAFA content of the blend was18%, the content of trans unsaturated fatty acid residues wasnegligible. From this blend a spread was manufactured with a compositionas described in Example I.

The mixture was processed through a pilot plant supplied by SchroderKombinator a through a conventional A-A-C sequence with a throughput of10 Kg per hour. Exit temperature of A unit was 17 Deg C. and that ofsecond A unit was 12 deg C. The exit temperature of the product was 8.8deg C. The rpm of the pin worker was maintained at 200.

The margarine produced was found to be soft, shining, of goodspreadability and imparted good salt release. The solid fat profile ofthe blend after tempering for 1 hour as well as 16 hours at 0 Deg C. isgiven as below: TABLE 9 Tempering 1 hour 16 hours N10 7.0 7.6 N20 4.24.7 N30 1.6 1.9 N35 1.0 1.0

The product showed good spread ability properties, plasticity andexhibited excellent melting behavior. It was soft and shiny with goodsalt release.

It could be seen from the above Examples that the hard structural fat ofthe current invention had the similar properties in the margarineformulation compared to the hard fat as described in prior art.

EXAMPLE-3

Hard Stock C

Hard structural fat of Example 1 was subject to panning and pressingafter hard setting at a temperature of 28-29 Deg C. The hard-set fat wasthen covered in filter cloth and subjected to a very high pressure of 50Kg/Cm² in a commercial Sperry hydraulic press specially developed forthis application. The Pressing was applied gradually to max level in90-minute period. The olein fraction was collected in drip tray. TheHard stearin fraction was removed from the press and melted. Thisresulted in a yield of 81% very hard structural fat stearin fraction.

The analytical values of the extra hard stearin fraction (extra hardtrans free structural fat) are given in the table-10 below: TABLE 10Fractionation of Interesterified Hard Structural fat Values Stearin Hardfat Fraction used Obtained Olein Fraction as Feed Hard stock-C obtained% Yield stock 81 19 SFC by NMR Deg C.- % N-20 92.5 92.60 58.74 N-25 85.292.00 41.36 N-30 72.5 84.30 21.74 N-35 54.3 70.30 4.62 N-40 33.7 50.100.00 FAC C-8 67.00 0.52 1.13 C-10 0.95 0.81 1.34 C-12 17.25 17.66 21.38C-14 8.24 8.50 7.45 C-16 58.31 59.66 46.95 C-18 4.96 5.35 3.95 C-18:18.16 6.38 15.92 C-18:2 1.45 1.03 1.87

It could be seen from the above example that the panning and pressing ofour novel Hard Interesterified structural fat resulted in an yield of81% Extra hard stearin fraction which matches with example X1 of U.S.Pat. No. 6,156,370 at the same time resulting in much higher yieldratios The olein fraction obtained had lower solid fat profile comparedto prior art.

For the purpose of comparison with respect to the functionalities ofthis novel structural fat (hard stock A,B and various examples of solidfat content of the fat blend as given in the prior art U.S. Pat. No.6,156,370 product, (structural fat in blend with sunflower oil) issummarized below in Table 11. The example numbers given in this tablerefers to the examples as given in the prior art patent. TABLE 11 SFOHard Fat %-SFC Examples % % 10° C. 20° C. 25° C. 30° C. 35° C. Hardstock-A 92 8 7.09 4.00 2.84 2.06 1.28 Hard stock-B 92 8 7.62 4.62 3.812.59 1.28 Hard stock-C 92 8 7.40 4.51 3.34 2.10 1.20 Ex-1- 92 8 7.804.20 2.30 0.70 U.S. Pat. No. 6,156,370 Ex-11 92 8 7.00 4.20 1.60 1.00U.S. Pat. No. 6,156,370 Ex-111 92 8 6.80 3.70 2.20 0.90 0.00 U.S. Pat.No. 6,156,370 Ex-111 90 10 9.20 4.70 2.80 1.90 0.20 U.S. Pat. No.6,156,370 Ex-1V 92 8 8.60 6.30 4.80 3.80 2.70 U.S. Pat. No. 6,156,370 ExV11 92.5 7.50 7.30 4.90 2.80 1.90 U.S. Pat. No. 6,156,370 Ex X 92 8 8.304.80 2.10 0.60 U.S. Pat. No. 6,156,370 Ex-X1 92 8 7.70 5.00 2.60 1.50U.S. Pat. No. 6,156,370 Ex-X11 92 8 8.60 5.90 3.60 2.40 U.S. Pat. No.6,156,370

Ex-1 to Ex-X11 are the Solid fat content (SFC) profiles as given in theU.S. Pat. No. 6,156,370. Hard stock A and Hard stock B, hard stock Crelates to the trans free hard structural fat obtained under Example 1and example 2 and example 3 of this invention.

It could be seen, that through the current invention, we could produce ahard structural fat of similar qualities as prior art product, but theprocess involved in the new art is much more economical and yield of thestructural fat was much higher for commercial exploitation. Themargarine produced by using the structural fat of current invention withsimilar in quality compared to prior art products.

1. A method of producing margarine and spread fat blend comprising:providing a liquid oil selected from the group consisting of sunfloweroil, Canola oil, soy oil, peanut oil, rice bran oil, olive oil,safflower oil, corn oil and marine oil, high oleic sunflower oil, cottonseed oil or a blend of any of the above liquid oils; blending saidliquid oils with a trans free hard structural fat, said margarine andspread fat blend comprising 60-95% of said liquid oil and 5-40% of saidtrans free structural fat; said trans free hard structural fat is madefrom selectively fractionated non-hydrogenated hard palm oil fraction,which is interesterified with lauric fat such as dry fractionatednon-hydrogenated palm kernel oil fraction without using hydrogenationprocess and without using organic solvent or detergent forfractionation.
 2. A method of producing a margarine and spread fat blendaccording to claim 1, wherein the liquid oil blend has a high poly/monounsaturated level such that in the total fat blend the poly/monounsaturation level exceeds 40%.
 3. A method of producing a margarine andspread fat blend according to claim 2, wherein said trans free hardstructural fat is produced without using a hydrogenation process.
 4. Amethod of producing a margarine and spread fat blend according to claim1, wherein the said hard palm oil fraction has a C16 carbon chainresidue greater than 70%.
 5. A method of producing a margarine andspread fat blend according to claim 1, wherein said hard palm oilfraction has a melting point higher than 57 degrees Celsius and can beflaked for easy handling because of its high melting point in spite ofnot being required to undergo hydrogenation and has a solid fat contentof greater than 75% at 40 degrees Celsius.
 6. A method of producing amargarine and spread fat blend and spread made according to claim 1wherein the hard structural fat is produced by an interesterificationreaction of a hard palm oil fraction with a hard palm kernel oilfraction, the resultant hard fat is not further fractionated but used assuch as a trans free hard structural fat.
 7. A method of producingmargarine and spread fat blend, according to claim 1, wherein: saidtrans free hard structural fat is produced by interesterification of ahard palm oil fraction having a C16 carbon chain fatty acid residuelevel of greater than 70% with a hard palm kernel oil fraction; and saidtrans free hard structural fat without further fractionation is blendedwith said liquid oil.
 8. A method of producing a margarine and spreadfat blend, according to claim 7, wherein said trans free hard structuralfat has a trisaturated triglyderide H₃ type less than 25%, wherein “H”denotes saturated fatty acid residues with carbon numbers greater thanor equal to
 16. 9. A method of producing a margarine and spread fatblend, according to claim 1, wherein: said hard palm oil fraction has aC16 level of greater than 75%; said hard palm oil fraction isinteresterified with a hard palm kernel oil fraction by random chemicalinteresterification producing an interesterified mixture; and saidinteresterified mixture is subjected to a physical fractionation methodof panning and pressing at a temperature of less than 30 degrees Celsiusto yield a minimum 75% level of extra hard structural fat.
 10. A methodof producing a margarine and spread fat blend according to claim 1,wherein said hard palm oil fraction is produced by: selectively dryfractionating the said palm oil or a stearin fraction thereof, by a meltcrystallization process; separating said hard palm oil fraction fromsaid dry fractionated palm oil in a high pressure membrane filter, suchthat said hard palm oil fraction has a C16 carbon chain fatty acidresidue level of greater than 70%; and said hard palm oil fraction beingproduced without using solvent or detergent for fractionation.
 11. Amethod of producing a margarine and spread fat blend according to claim10, further comprising: said hard palm oil fraction is produced using atwo-step melt crystallization process; a first step of said two-stepmelt crystallization process comprising of crystallizing said palm oilat a temperature between about 20 and 25 degrees Celsius and filtering acrystallized slurry of said palm oil through a membrane filter, saidfirst step producing a medium hard palm oil fraction; and a second stepof said two-step melt crystallization process comprising crystallizingsaid medium hard palm oil fraction at a temperature between about 45 to55 degrees Celsius and filtering a crystallized slurry of said mediumhard palm oil fraction through a high pressure membrane filter, saidsecond step producing a very hard palm oil fraction with a C16 carbonchain fatty acid residue level of greater than 70%.
 12. A method ofproducing a margarine and spread fat blend according to claim 10,further comprising using a pressure of at least about 10 bar to inflatemembranes of said high pressure membrane filter to remove a liquidfraction occluded in a hard palm oil fraction collected in said highpressure membrane filter.
 13. A method of producing a margarine andspread fat blend according to claim 12 wherein said pressure is up toabout 35 bar.
 14. A method of producing a margarine and spread fat blendaccording to claim 11, further comprising using a pressure of at leastabout 10 bar to inflate membranes of said high pressure membrane filterto remove a liquid fraction occluded in a hard palm oil fractioncollected in said high pressure membrane filter.
 15. A method ofproducing a margarine and spread fat blend according to claim 13 whereinsaid pressure is up to about 35 bar.
 16. A fat blend suitable for themanufacture of margarine, spread and shortening, salad dressing,mayonnaise, bakery products, nutrition bars, beverages, soups, sauces,gravies, pizza and frozen dinner entrees said fat blend comprising60-96% of a liquid oil selected from the group consisting of sunfloweroil, canola oil, soy oil, peanut oil, rice bran oil, olive oil, rapeseed oil, safflower oil, corn oil, cotton seed oil, high oleic sunfloweroil, palm oil or its fractions, marine oils, or a blend of any of theabove liquid oils with a trans free hard structural fat or a trans freeextra hard structural fat at 40-4% level wherein said trans freestructural fat as well as trans free extra hard structural fat is madeby interesterifying a selectively fractionated non-hydrogenated hardpalm oil stearin fraction, with a fractionated non-hydrogenated hardpalm kernel oil stearin fraction and wherein the said hard palm kerneloil stearin fraction is a stearin fraction of palm kernel oil with aC-12 carbon chain fatty acid residue level of at least 50% and asaturated fat level of at least 85%; the said hard palm oil stearinfraction is a stearin fraction of palm oil with a C-16 carbon chainfatty acid residue of at least 70% and saturated fatty acid level of atleast 85%; the said trans free hard structural fat is obtained byinteresterification of the said hard palm oil stearin fraction and saidhard palm kernel oil stearin fraction.
 17. A fat blend according toclaim 16, wherein the fat blend has a poly or mono unsaturated level ofat least 40%.
 18. A method of producing a trans free hard structuralfat, comprising: selectively fractionating non-hydrogenated palm oil ora stearin fraction thereof such that the C16 fatty acid residue level inthe hard palm oil fraction is greater than 70%; interesterifying saidhard palm oil fraction with lauric fat such as dry fractionatednon-hydrogenated palm kernel oil fraction without using hydrogenationprocess and without subjecting the said trans free hard structural fatto further fractionation process; said trans free hard structural fatbeing produced without using organic solvent or detergent forfractionation.
 19. A method of producing a trans free hard structuralfat, according to claim 18, further comprising: said dry fractionatingprocess is a melt crystallization process; separating a hard palm oilfraction in a high pressure membrane filter, such that said hard palmoil fraction has a C16 carbon chain fatty acid residue level of greaterthan 70%; and said hard palm oil fraction being produced without asolvent or detergent for fractionation.
 20. A method of producing atrans free hard structural fat, according to claim 19, furthercomprising: said hard palm oil fraction is produced using a two-stepcrystallization process; a first step of said two-step crystallizationprocess comprising of crystallizing said palm oil at a temperaturebetween about 20 and 25 degrees Celsius and filtering a crystallizedslurry of said palm oil through a membrane filter, said first stepproducing a medium hard palm oil fraction; and a second step of saidtwo-step crystallization process comprising crystallizing said mediumhard palm oil fraction at a temperature between about 45 to 55 degreesCelsius and filtering a crystallized slurry of said medium hard palm oilfraction through a high pressure membrane filter, said second stepproducing a very hard palm oil fraction with a C16 carbon chain fattyacid residue level of greater than 70%.
 21. A method of producing atrans free hard structural fat, according to claim 19, furthercomprising using a pressure of at least about 10 bar to inflate amembrane of said high pressure membrane filter to remove a liquidfraction occluded in the hard palm oil fraction collected in said highpressure membrane filter.
 22. A method of producing a trans free hardstructural fat according to claim 21 wherein said pressure is up toabout 60 bar.
 23. A method of producing trans free hard structural fat,according to claim 18, further comprising using a pressure of at leastabout 10 bar to inflate a membrane of said high pressure membrane filterto remove a liquid fraction occluded in the hard palm oil fractioncollected in said high pressure membrane filter.
 24. A method ofproducing a trans free hard structural fat according to claim 23 whereinsaid pressure is up to about 60 bar.
 25. A method of producing a transfree hard structural fat, according to claim 18, wherein said trans freehard structural fat is produced without using a hydrogenation process sothat the trans free fatty acid residue produced during hydrogenation iseliminated.
 26. A method of producing a trans free hard structural fat,according to claim 18, wherein said palm oil fraction has a C16 carbonchain fatty acid residue greater than 70%.
 27. A method of producing atrans free hard structural fat, according to claim 18, wherein the palmoil fraction has a melting point higher than 57 degrees Celsius and canbe flaked for easy handling because of its high melting point in spiteof not being required to undergo hydrogenation and has a solid fatcontent of greater than 75% at 40 degrees Celsius.
 28. A method ofproducing trans free extra hard structural fat according to claim 17,comprising: said interesterified mixture is subjected to a physicalfractionation method of panning and pressing at a temperature of lessthan 30 degrees Celsius to yield a minimum 75% level of extra hardstructural fat.
 29. A trans free hard structural fat, comprising: a hardpalm oil fraction consisting of selectively fractionatednon-hydrogenated palm oil or a stearin fraction thereof, said hard palmoil having a C16 fatty acid residue level in the hard palm oil fractionis greater than 70%; interesterifying said hard palm oil fraction withlauric fat such as dry fractionated non-hydrogenated palm kernel oilfraction without using hydrogenation process and without subjecting thesaid trans free hard structural fat to further fractionation process;said trans free hard structural fat being produced without using organicsolvent or detergent for fractionation; said interesterified mixture issubjected to a physical fractionation method of panning and pressing ata temperature of less than 30 degrees Celsius to yield a minimum 75%level of extra hard structural fat.
 30. A trans free hard structural fathaving a tri-saturated triglyceride H₃ type at most 25%, wherein “H”denotes saturated fatty acid residues with carbon numbers greater thanor equal to 16, wherein: the said fat being produced byinteresterification reaction of a hard palm oil stearin fraction havinga C-16 carbon chain fatty acid residue of at least 70% and a saturatedfatty acid level (SAFA) of at least 85% with a hard palm kernel oilstearin fraction having a C-12 carbon chain fatty acid residue of atleast 50%, and a saturated fatty acid residue (SAFA) level of at least85%.
 31. A trans free hard structural fat, as in claim 30, wherein: saidstructural fat being used in the formulation of a fat blend suitable forthe manufacture of margarine, spread, shortening, salad dressing,mayonnaise, bakery products, nutrition bars and beverages, soups andsauces, gravies, pizza and frozen dinner entrees along with liquid oilsor blend of liquid oils with out subjecting it to further fractionationprocess and the said fat blend resulting in a low SAFA, high mono orpoly unsaturated products.
 32. A trans free hard structural fat, as inclaim 31, wherein: said structural fat is used in a chocolate fat systemat very low levels to improve bloom resistance.
 33. A trans free hardstructural fat according to claim 30, wherein: the said trans free hardstructural fat being further subjected to panning to form a hardcrystallized slab at a temperature not exceeding about 30.5 DegreesCelsius and the said slab is wrapped in a filter cloth and then pressedin a hydraulic press to remove the liquid olein fraction entrapped inthe cooled slab, the pressing operation resulting in a extra hard transfree structural fat, the yield of extra hard trans free structural fatbeing at least 60%; the said trans free hard structural fat beingfurther subjected to panning to form a hard crystallized slab at atemperature not exceeding 30.5 Degrees Celsius and the said slab isminced to form a thick slurry and pumped in to a membrane press toremove the liquid olein fraction entrapped in the slurry, the membranefiltration resulting in a extra hard trans free structural fat, theyield of extra hard trans free structural fat being at least 60%; saidextra hard trans free hard structural fat has a tri saturated triglyceride H₃ type is at most 20%, wherein “H” denotes saturated fattyacid residues with carbon numbers greater than or equal to
 16. 34. Atrans free hard structural fat, as in claim 33, wherein: said fat isused in blend with any liquid oil selected from the group consisting ofsunflower oil, high oleic sunflower oil, canola oil, soy oil, peanutoil, rice bran oil, olive oil, rape seed oil, cotton seed oil, saffloweroil, corn oil, palm oil or its fractions, and marine oils, or in a blendof any of the above liquid oils to formulate a trans free nonhydrogenated fat suitable for formulating low SAFA, high mono or polyunsaturated products.
 35. A trans free hard structural fat, as in claim34, wherein said fat is used as a trans free crystallization promoter inconfectionary fat applications.
 36. A trans free hard structural fat, asin claim 34, wherein said fat is used to avoid oiling out of peanutbutter.
 37. A trans free hard structural fat, as in claim 34, whereinsaid fat is used for the formulation of margarine, spread, shortening,salad dressing, mayonnaise, bakery products, nutrition bars, beverages,soups, sauces, gravies, pizza or frozen dinner entrees.
 38. A trans freehard structural fat, as in claim 34, wherein said structural fat beingused in a chocolate fat system to improve bloom resistance.
 39. A methodof producing trans free hard structural fat according to claim 30 or 33,wherein: said interesterification process is a random chemicalinteresterification process using sodium methoxide or sodium methylateas catalyst.
 40. A method of producing of trans free hard structural fataccording to claim 30, 33 or 39, wherein said interesterificationprocess is a random or 1,3 specific enzymatic interesterificationprocess.
 41. A hard palm oil stearin fraction having a C-16 carbon chainfatty acid residue of at least 70%, comprising: said fraction having amelt point of at least 57 Def Celsius and having a solid fat content ofat least 75% at 40 Deg Celsius; said hard stearin fraction is obtainedby a single or two stage melt crystallization of palm oil or hardstearin fraction; said hard palm stearin fraction having a saturatedfatty acid residue level of at least 85%; and said hard palm oil stearinfraction can be flaked or sprayed and granulated for easy handlingbecause of its high melting point in spite of not being required toundergo hydrogenation.
 42. A method of producing hard palm oil stearinfraction according to claim 41, comprising: selectively dryfractionating the said palm oil or a stearin fraction thereof, by a meltcrystallization process; separating said hard palm oil fraction fromcrystallized slurry of the said palm oil or its stearin fraction in ahigh pressure membrane filter press; subjecting the said separated hardpalm oil fraction in the said filter press to a squeezing pressureexceeding 10 bar by inflating the membranes of the said filter press;said hard palm oil fraction recovered as filter cake has a C16 carbonchain fatty acid residue level of at least 70%; said high pressuremembrane filter press having a chamber depth of at most 35 millimeter.43. A method of producing hard palm oil fraction according to claim 42,further comprising: said hard palm oil fraction being produced using atwo-step melt crystallization process of palm oil or its stearinfraction; a first step of said two-step melt crystallization processcomprising of crystallizing said palm oil at a temperature between about20 and 25 degrees Celsius and separating a crystallized slurry of saidpalm oil through a filter, said first step producing a medium hard palmstearin fraction having an iodine value varying from about 26 to about40; second step of said two-step melt crystallization process comprisingcrystallizing said palm stearin fraction at a temperature between about40 to about 55 degrees Celsius and filtering a crystallized slurry ofsaid palm stearin fraction through a high pressure membrane filterpress; said second step producing a very hard palm stearin fraction witha C16 carbon chain fatty acid residue level of at least 70%; and saidhigh pressure membrane filter press having a chamber depth of at most 35millimeter.
 44. A high pressure membrane filter press being used for theproduction of hard palm stearin fraction according to claim 43, wherein:said high pressure membrane filter having a chamber depth of at most 35millimeter; said high pressure membrane filter suitable for applicationof squeeze pressure of at least 10 bar.
 45. A high pressure membranefilter press being used for the production of hard palm stearin fractionaccording to claim 44, wherein: said high pressure membrane filterapplies a pressure of at least about 10 bar.
 46. A high pressuremembrane filter press, as in claim 45 wherein said pressure is up toabout 60 bar.
 47. A high pressure membrane filter press being used forthe production of hard palm stearin fraction according to claim 43,wherein: said high pressure membrane filter press having a chamber depthof 5 to 15 millimeter; said pressure membrane filter suitable forapplication of pressure of at least 10 bar.
 48. A high pressure membranefilter press being used for the production of hard palm stearin fractionaccording to claim 43, wherein: said high pressure membrane filter presshaving a chamber depth of 5 to 15 millimeter; said high pressuremembrane filter suitable for application of pressure of at least about10 bar.
 49. A high pressure membrane filter press as in claim 48,wherein said pressure is up to about 60 bar.
 50. A hard palm oilfraction, comprising: said hard palm oil fraction having a C16 carbonchain residue level is greater than 70%; said hard palm oil fractionbeing produced by cooling a palm oil stearin fraction to below 30degrees Celsius to form a hard slab; and pressing said slab in a highpressure hydraulic press to recover a hard palm oil fraction.
 51. A hardpalm oil fraction, comprising: said hard palm oil fraction having a C 16carbon chain residue level is greater than 70%; said hard palm oilfraction being produced by selectively dry fractionating palm oil or astearin fraction thereof, by a melt crystallization process; separatingthe hard palm oil fraction from said dry fractionated palm oil fraction,in a high pressure membrane filter; and subjecting the hard palm oilfraction collected in the high pressure membrane filter to a pressure ofat least about 10 bar by inflating a membrane of said high pressuremembrane filter to remove a liquid fraction occluded in the hard palmoil fraction collected in said high pressure membrane filter.
 52. A hardpalm oil fraction, as in claim 51, wherein said pressure is up to about35 bar.
 53. A hard palm oil fraction, according to claim 51, furthercomprising: said hard palm oil fraction is produced using a two-stepmelt crystallization process; a first step of said two-step meltcrystallization process comprising crystallizing said palm oil at atemperature between about 20 and 25 degrees Celsius and filtering acrystallized slurry of said palm oil through a membrane filter, saidfirst step producing a medium hard palm oil fraction; and a second stepof said two-step melt crystallization process comprising crystallizingsaid medium hard palm oil fraction at a temperature between about 45 to55 degrees Celsius and filtering a crystallized slurry of said mediumhard palm oil fraction through a high pressure membrane filter; saidsecond step producing a very hard palm oil fraction with a C16 carbonchain fatty acid residue level of greater than 70%.
 54. A hard palm oilfraction, according to claim 53, further comprising using a pressure ofat least about 10 bar to inflate membranes of said high pressuremembrane filter to remove a liquid fraction occluded in the hard palmoil fraction collected in said high pressure membrane filter so as toenrich the C16 fatty acid residue in the said hard palm oil fraction.55. A hard palm oil fraction, as in claim 54 wherein said pressure is upto about 60 bar.
 56. A hard palm oil fraction, according to claim 50,wherein the said hard palm oil fraction has a melting point higher than57 degrees Celsius and can be flaked for easy handling because of itshigh melting pointing spite of not being required to undergohydrogenation and has a solid fat content of greater than 75% at 40degrees Celsius.
 57. A hard palm oil fraction, according to claim 51,wherein the said hard palm oil fraction has a melting point higher than57 degrees Celsius and can be flaked for easy handling because of itshigh melting pointing spite of not being required to undergohydrogenation and has a solid fat content of greater than 75% at 40degrees Celsius.
 58. A hard palm oil fraction, comprising: said hardpalm oil fraction having a C16 carbon chain residue level is greaterthan 70%; said hard palm oil fraction being produced by selectively dryfractionating palm oil or a stearin fraction thereof, by a meltcrystallization process.
 59. A hard palm oil fraction, according toclaim 58, further comprising: said hard palm oil fraction is producedusing a two-step melt crystallization process; a first step of saidtwo-step melt crystallization process comprising crystallizing said palmoil at a temperature between about 20 and 25 degrees Celsius andfiltering a crystallized slurry of said palm oil through a membranefilter, said first step producing a medium hard palm oil fraction; and asecond step of said two-step melt crystallization process comprisingcrystallizing said medium hard palm oil fraction at a temperaturebetween about 45 to 55 degrees Celsius and filtering a crystallizedslurry of said medium hard palm oil fraction through a high pressuremembrane filter; said second step producing a very hard palm oilfraction with a C16 carbon chain fatty acid residue level of greaterthan 70%.
 60. A hard palm oil fraction, comprising: said hard palm oilfraction having a C16 carbon chain residue level greater than 70%; saidhard palm oil fraction being produced by selectively dry fractionatingpalm oil or a stearin fraction thereof, by a melt crystallizationprocess; separating the hard palm oil fraction from a crystallizedslurry, in a high pressure membrane filter; and subjecting the hard palmoil fraction separated in the high pressure membrane filter to apressure of at least about 10 bar by inflating a membrane of said highpressure membrane filter to remove a liquid fraction occluded in thehard palm oil fraction collected in said high pressure membrane filter;said hard palm oil fraction is produced using a two-step meltcrystallization process; a first step of said two-step meltcrystallization process comprising crystallizing said palm oil at atemperature between about 20 and 25 degrees Celsius and filtering acrystallized slurry of said palm oil through a membrane filter, saidfirst step producing a medium hard palm oil fraction; and a second stepof said two-step melt crystallization process comprising crystallizingsaid medium hard palm oil fraction at a temperature between about 45 to55 degrees Celsius and filtering a crystallized slurry of said mediumhard palm oil fraction through a high pressure membrane filter; saidsecond step producing a very hard palm oil fraction with a C16 carbonchain fatty acid residue level of greater than 70%.
 61. A hard palm oilfraction, as in claim 60, wherein said pressure is up to about 35 bar.62. A hard palm oil fraction, comprising: said hard palm oil fractionhaving a C16 carbon chain residue level is greater than 70%; said hardpalm oil fraction being produced by selectively dry fractionating palmoil or a stearin fraction thereof, by a melt crystallization process;said hard palm oil fraction is produced using a two-step meltcrystallization process; a first step of said two-step meltcrystallization process comprising crystallizing said palm oil at atemperature between about 20 and 25 degrees Celsius and filtering acrystallized slurry of said palm oil through a membrane filter, saidfirst step producing a medium hard palm oil fraction; and a second stepof said two-step melt crystallization process comprising crystallizingsaid medium had palm oil fraction at a temperature between about 45 to55 degrees Celsius and filtering a crystallized slurry of said mediumhard palm oil fraction through a high pressure membrane filter; saidsecond step producing a very hard palm oil fraction with a C 16 carbonchain fatty acid residue level of greater than 70%.
 63. A hard palm oilfraction, comprising: said hard palm oil fraction having a C16 carbonchain residue level greater than 70%; said hard palm oil fraction beingproduced by cooling a palm oil stearin fraction to below 30 degreesCelsius to form a hard slab; pressing said slab in a high pressurehydraulic press to recover a hard palm oil fraction; and said hard palmoil fraction has a melting point higher than 57 degrees Celsius and canbe flaked for easy handling because of its high melting point in spiteof not being required to undergo hydrogenation and ha a solid fatcontent of greater than 75% at 40 degrees Celsius.
 64. A hard palm oilfraction, comprising: said hard palm oil fraction having a C16 carbonchain residue level greater than 70%; said hard palm oil fraction beingproduced by selectively dry fractionating palm oil or a stearin fractionthereof, by a melt crystallization process; separating the hard palm oilfraction from a crystallized slurry, in a high pressure membrane filter;subjecting the hard palm oil fraction separated in the high pressuremembrane filter to a pressure of at least about 10 bar by inflating amembrane of said high pressure membrane filter to remove a liquidfraction occluded in the hard palm oil fraction collected in said highpressure membrane filter; and said hard palm oil fraction has a meltingpoint higher than 57 degrees Celsius and can be flaked for easy handlingbecause of high melting point in spite of not being required to undergohydrogenation and has a solid fat content of greater than 75% at 40degrees Celsius.
 65. A hard palm oil fraction as in claim 64 whereinsaid pressure is up to about 35 bar.
 66. A hard palm oil fraction havinga C-16 carbon chain fatty acid residue of at least 70% as in claim 41,wherein: said hard fraction being used as a rumen by-pass fat or a rumeninert fat; said fat being used at least 65% in a blend with fatty acidbeing used as a rumen by-pass or inert fat with or with out otheradditives; said fat being used as a trans free crystallization promoterin confectionary fat applications; said fat being used as an additive insoup blends or any dry blends; said fat being used to avoid oiling outof peanut butter; said fat being used in interesterification reactionwith any liquid oil selected from the group consisting of sunflower oil,canola oil, soy oil, peanut oil, rice bran oil, olive oil, rape seedoil, safflower oil, corn oil, palm oil or its fractions, marine oils, ora blend of any of the above liquid oils to formulate a trans free nonhydrogenated fat for any applications.
 67. A method of producing a hardpalm oil fraction, comprising: cooling a palm oil stearin fraction tobelow 30 degrees Celsius to form a hard slab; pressing said slab in ahigh pressure hydraulic press to recover a hard palm oil fraction; andsaid hard palm oil fraction having a C16 carbon chain residue level isgreater than 70%.
 68. A method of producing a hard palm oil fraction,comprising: selectively dry fractionating palm oil or a stearin fractionthereof, by a melt crystallization process; separating the said hardpalm oil fraction from said dry fractionated palm oil fraction, in ahigh pressure membrane filter; subjecting the hard palm oil fractioncollected in the high pressure membrane filter to a pressure of at leastabout 10 bar by inflating a membrane of said high pressure membranefilter to remove a liquid fraction occluded in the hard palm oilfraction collected in said high pressure membrane filter; and said hardpalm oil fraction having a C16 carbon chain residue level greater than70%.
 69. A method of producing a hard palm oil fraction according toclaim 68, wherein said pressure is up to about 35 bar.
 70. A method ofproducing a hard palm oil fraction, according to claim 68, furthercomprising: said hard palm oil fraction is produced using a two-stepmelt crystallization process; a first step of said two-step meltcrystallization process comprising crystallizing said palm oil at atemperature between about 20 and 25 degrees Celsius and filtering acrystallized slurry of said palm oil through a membrane filter, saidfirst step producing a medium hard palm oil fraction; and a second stepof said two-step melt crystallization process comprising crystallizingsaid medium hard palm oil fraction at a temperature between about 45 to55 degrees Celsius and filtering a crystallized slurry of said mediumhard palm oil fraction through a high pressure membrane filter; saidsecond step producing a very hard palm oil fraction with a C16 carbonchain fatty acid residue level of greater than 70%.
 71. A method ofproducing a hard palm oil fraction, according to claim 70, furthercomprising using a pressure of at least 10 bar to inflate membranes ofsaid high pressure membrane filter to remove a liquid fraction occludedin the hard palm oil fraction collected in said high pressure membranefilter so as to enrich the C16 fatty acid residue in the said hard palmoil fraction.
 72. A method of producing a hard palm oil fractionaccording to claim 71, wherein said pressure is up to about 35 bar. 73.A method of producing a hard palm oil fraction, according to claim 70,wherein the said hard palm oil fraction has a melting point higher than57 degrees Celsius and can be flaked for easy handling because of itshigh melting point in spite of not being required to undergohydrogenation and has a solid fat content of greater than 75% at 40degrees Celsius.
 74. A method of producing a hard palm oil fraction,according to claim 71, wherein the said hard palm oil fraction has amelting point higher than 57 degrees Celsius and can be flaked for easyhandling because of its high melting point in spite of not beingrequired to undergo hydrogenation and has a solid fat content of greaterthan 75% at 40 degrees Celsius.
 75. A method of producing a hard palmoil fraction, comprising selectively dry fractionating palm oil or astearin fraction thereof by melt crystallization process, said hard palmoil fraction having a C 16 carbon chain residue level of greater than70%, with a total unsaturation level of less than 15%.
 76. A method ofproducing a hard palm oil fraction according to claim 75, comprising dryfractioning palm oil using a two step melt crystallization process, thefirst step being performed between 20-25 degrees Celsius, to obtain amedium hard palm oil fraction and the medium hard palm oil fraction isthen once again dry fractionated between 45-55 degrees Celsius, toharvest very hard palm oil fraction rich in C 16 fatty acids.
 77. Amethod of producing a hard palm oil fraction, comprising: selectivelydry fractionating palm oil or a stearin fraction thereof by meltcrystallization process, said hard palm oil fraction having a C16 carbonchain residue level of greater than 75%, with a total unsaturation levelof less than 15%; dry fractionating said palm oil using a two step meltcrystallization process, the first step being performed between 20-25degrees Celsius, to obtain a medium hard palm oil fraction and themedium hard palm oil fraction is then once again dry fractionatedbetween 45-55 degrees Celsius, to separate very hard palm oil fractionrich in C16 fatty acids.
 78. A method of producing a hard palm oilfraction, comprising: selectively dry fractionating palm oil or astearin fraction thereof by melt crystallization process, said hard palmoil fraction having a C16 carbon chain residue level of greater than70%, with a total unsaturation level of less than 15%; dry fractionatingsaid palm oil using a two-step melt crystallization process, the firststep being performed between 20-25 degrees Celsius, to obtain a mediumhard palm oil fraction and the medium hard palm oil fraction is thenonce again dry fractionated between 45-55 degrees Celsius, to harvestvery hard palm oil fraction rich in C16 fatty acids.
 79. A method ofproducing hard palm stearin fraction according to claim 39 wherein: palmstearin fraction is cooled to form a slab of thickness preferably morethan 0.5 inch; the said cooled slab being wrapped in a filter cloth oftight air permeability; the said wrapped slabs are subjected tohydraulic pressure to remove the occluded olein fraction; the saidprocess resulting in a hard palm stearin fraction having C-16 carbonchain fatty acid residue level of at least 70%.
 80. A soft trans freeolein fraction having a slip melt point of 32-49 Deg C. being used asconfectionary filling fat, mil fat replacer, or shortening.
 81. A transfree soft palm olein fraction, comprising: the said olein fraction beingobtained by melt crystallization and single or two stage fractionationof palm oil stearin fraction having iodine number between 26 to 40; saidolein fraction being obtained while separation of hard palm stearinfraction having C-16 carbon chain fatty acid residue level of 70% andabove; the said olein fraction having a melt point varying from 32 DegC. to 48 Deg C.; the said olein fraction having a solid frat profile ofdegrees Celsius of 34-54% at 20 degrees Celsius, 12-14% at 30 degreesCelsius; 3-5% at 35 degrees Celsius; and 2-4% at 40 degrees Celsius; thesaid olein fraction having substantially no trans fats other than verylow levels developed during high temperature deodorization.
 82. A transfree soft palm olein fraction, as in claim 81, wherein said trans freeolein fraction being produced by filtering in membrane press to removehard stearin fraction having high C-16 fatty acid residues.
 83. A transfree soft palm olein fraction, as in claim 81, wherein said oleinfraction being obtained as by-product while producing hard palm oilstearin fraction as per claim
 3. 84. A trans free soft palm oleinfraction, as in claim 81, wherein said soft olein fraction being used assuch or blending with other fats or oils for confectionary filling. 85.A trans free soft palm olein fraction, as in claim 81, wherein saidtrans free olein fraction being used to replace milk fat in confections.